Hieronymus Bosch

Netherlandish, c. 1450 - 1516

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Dutch painter (c. 1450–1516)

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A naked man with ghostly white skin sits upright in a canopied bed set in a narrow room in this tall, vertical painting. Wearing a black cap, he looks to our left in profile toward a skeleton who comes through a door along the left edge of the composition. The man gestures at the skeleton with one hand and, with the other, toward a bag of money held up by a small demon next to the bed to our left. The skeleton wears a white shroud and holds an arrow. A winged angel kneels next to the man in the bed, one hand on the man’s shoulder and the other lifted to gesture at a crucifix hanging in the window over the door. A small devil on the canopy above looks down onto the bed. At the foot of the bed, a man wearing a green robe and headdress drops coins into a sack held by another demon. Three more demons crawl about and hide under the chest. Pieces of armor and weapons lie on the ground to the right in front of a stone ledge in the foreground. Two pieces of clothing drape over the ledge to our left.
Hieronymus Bosch, Death and the Miser, c. 1485/1490, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.33

Death and the Miser

Hieronymus Bosch · c. 1485/1490 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1952.5.33

M.C. Escher, "Hell" (after Hieronymus Bosch), 1935, lithograph, Cornelius Van S. Roosevelt Collection, 1974.28.1

"Hell" (after Hieronymus Bosch)

M.C. Escher · 1935 · lithograph ·  Accession ID  1974.28.1

William Henry Brooke, The Death of the Miser, pen and brown ink, Gift of E. Kersley, 1983.48.1

The Death of the Miser

William Henry Brooke · · pen and brown ink ·  Accession ID  1983.48.1

Printed with fine black lines on light tan paper, a whale-sized fish spilling smaller fish from its gaping mouth and a gash in its belly fills a beach in this horizontal engraving. The fish lies on its side with its belly facing us, and one bulging eye peers off to our left. A man wearing a helmet holds a knife twice his own size with the blade up as he cuts the fish’s belly. Fish and scallop shells of all sizes tumble from its cavernous mouth and side. Several fish also have smaller fish in their mouths. On the far side of the fish, a man stands on a ladder braced against the enormous creature, holding a raised trident as he looks down, his face covered by the wide brim of his hat. On the land to our right is another smaller fish with human legs, which carries a fish in its mouth. It passes a man who carries a fish on his back outside a dilapidated cottage as he climbs a ladder leaning against a tree. Two other fish hang from the tree’s branches. Around the shoreline to the left, fish surface with more fish in their mouths. A man and a boy wearing tunics and long headdresses sit in a rowboat close to us, pointing as a second man in the boat holds a knife in his teeth and pulls a small fish from the body of a larger one. The word “ECCE” is inscribe near the pointing man’s hand. Another man sits on the beach further up the shoreline, about to catch a fish using fish as bait. The water stretches back to a town in the far distance. Boats float in the middle distance and some approach another whale-sized fish beached on a small island behind a tall rocky outcropping. About a dozen people with spears gather on the island around that fish. A flock of birds fly in silhouette in the distance beyond the island. A flying creature closer to us has a scaly body, gaping mouth, wavy tail, and teardrop-shaped wings. An inscription in the upper left corner reads, “Grandibus exigui sunt pisces piscibus esca.” The print is signed in the lower left corner, “CJVisscher excud,” with the CJV joined to make a monogram. An inscription printed in the margin under the image reads, “Siet sone dit heb’ick seer lange gheweten Dat die groote Vissen de cleyne eten. P. Breugel inven:.”
Hendrik Hondius I, Claes Jansz Visscher, The Big Fish Eat the Little Fish, c. 1619, engraving, Rosenwald Collection, 1980.45.223

The Big Fish Eat the Little Fish

Hendrik Hondius I, Claes Jansz Visscher · c. 1619 · engraving ·  Accession ID  1980.45.223

Hieronymus Cock, Johannes van Doetechum the Elder, Lucas van Doetechum, The Temptation of Saint Anthony, 1561, etching and engraving on laid paper, Rosenwald Collection, 1964.8.385

The Temptation of Saint Anthony

Hieronymus Cock, Johannes van Doetechum the Elder, Lucas van Doetechum · 1561 · etching and engraving on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1964.8.385

Cornelis Cort, Hieronymus Cock, The Last Judgment Triptych, c. 1560-1570, engraving on laid paper, Print Purchase Fund (Rosenwald Collection), 1971.7.1

The Last Judgment Triptych

Cornelis Cort, Hieronymus Cock · c. 1560-1570 · engraving on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1971.7.1

Pieter van der Heyden, Hieronymus Cock, Die Blau Schuyte (The Blue Boat), 1559, engraving on laid paper, Rosenwald Collection, 1964.8.384

Die Blau Schuyte (The Blue Boat)

Pieter van der Heyden, Hieronymus Cock · 1559 · engraving on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1964.8.384

Printed with fine black lines on light tan paper, a whale-sized fish spilling smaller fish from its gaping mouth and a gash in its belly fills a beach in this horizontal engraving. The fish lies on its side with its belly facing us, and one bulging eye peers off to our right. A man wearing a helmet holds a knife twice his own size with the blade up as he cuts the fish’s belly. Fish and scallop shells of all sizes tumble from its cavernous mouth and side. Several fish also have smaller fish in their mouths. On the far side of the fish, a man stands on a ladder braced against the enormous creature, holding a raised trident as he looks down, his face covered by the wide brim of his hat. On the land to our left is another smaller fish with human legs, which carries a fish in its mouth. It passes a man who carries a fish on his back outside a dilapidated cottage as he climbs a ladder leaning against a tree. Two other fish hang from the tree’s branches. Around the shoreline to the right, fish surface with more fish in their mouths. A man and a boy wearing tunics and long headdresses sit in a rowboat close to us, pointing as a second man in the boat holds a knife in his teeth and pulls a small fish from the body of a larger one. Another man sits on the beach further up the shoreline, about to catch a fish using fish as bait. The water stretches back to a town in the far distance. Boats float in the middle distance and some approach another whale-sized fish beached on a small island behind a tall rocky outcropping. About a dozen people with spears gather on the island around that fish. A flock of birds fly in silhouette in the distance beyond the island. A flying creature closer to us has a scaly body, gaping mouth, wavy tail, and tear-drop shaped wings. The print is inscribed in the lower left, “Hieronijmus.Bos. inuentor” and in the lower center, “ECCE.” The lower right is inscribed, “COCK. EXCV. 1557.”
Pieter van der Heyden, The Big Fish Eat the Little Fish, published 1557, engraving, Rosenwald Collection, 1980.45.222

The Big Fish Eat the Little Fish

Pieter van der Heyden · published 1557 · engraving ·  Accession ID  1980.45.222

Lucas van Doetechum, Johannes van Doetechum the Elder, Saint Martin with His Horse in a Ship, c. 1561, etching and engraving on laid paper, Rosenwald Collection, 1968.24.5

Saint Martin with His Horse in a Ship

Lucas van Doetechum, Johannes van Doetechum the Elder · c. 1561 · etching and engraving on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1968.24.5

Bibliography

1937

  • Tolnay, Charles de. Hieronymus Bosch. Basel, 1937 (Engl. ed., with cat., New York, 1966).

1967

  • Gerlach, P. "Jeronimus van Aken alias Bosch en de Onze Lieve Vrouwe-Broederschap." Jheronimus Bosch. Bijdragen bij gelegenheid van de herdenkstentoonstelling te 's-Hertogenbosch. Eindhoven, 1967: 48-60.

1973

  • Gibson, Walter. Hieronymus Bosch. New York, 1973.

  • Snyder, James, ed. Bosch in Perspective. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1973.

1986

  • Hand, John Oliver and Martha Wolff. Early Netherlandish Painting. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1986: 15.